Canada NewsWire, 25/02/2003

Two class action lawsuits were filed on February 24 in the Supreme Court of British Columbia on behalf of British Columbia residents who, it is claimed, were injured by the organic mercury compound, thimerosal.

The first class action was filed by Jaqueline Chamberlain of Sooke, British Columbia, on behalf of her infant son, Aaron, who, she says, suffered neurological damage after receiving two doses of the DPT vaccine, containing thimerosal, manufactured by Aventis Pasteur Limited/Aventis Pasteur Limitee.

Aaron was born a perfectly normal, healthy boy. According to his mother, he demonstrated social language, cognitive, behavioural and physical skills appropriate for his age. At about one-and-a-half years of age, after receiving the DPT Vaccine, he became unresponsive, withdrawn, slow in speech development, and developed repetitive behaviours and an obsessive-compulsive disorder. Aaron was diagnosed with autism at five, and now, at ten, still has limited language and social skills.

The second class action was filed by Elias Soursos of Richmond, British Columbia, on behalf of his infant son, Niko, who began to display symptoms of neurological damage after receiving three shots of the hepatitis B vaccines, containing thimerosal, manufactured by Merck Frosst Canada & Co. and Glaxosmithkline Inc.

Niko was born a perfectly normal, healthy boy. Before the vaccine injections, Niko achieved every developmental milestone expected of all normally developing children physically, neurologically and socially. At approximately one-and-a-half years of age after receiving three shots of hepatitis B vaccines, Niko began to display signs of neurological damage, became more distant and lost all language skills which he had acquired. He became non-verbal and developed self-stimming behaviours. Niko was diagnosed with autism at the age of two-and-a-half years.

According to the Statements of Claim, filed today in Vancouver, British Columbia, Aventis Pasteur, Merck Frosst Canada and Glaxosmithkline knew, or reasonably should have known, of the neurotoxic effects of the mercury contained in thimerosal in the Vaccines. Mercury poisoning is well documented in medical literature, and the developing neurological systems of infants are particularly vulnerable. The defendants had developed tested, manufactured, licensed, distributed, marketed, supplied and/or sold the vaccines with the knowledge that they would be injected into infants, the Statements of Claim maintained.

The lawsuits were filed on behalf of Aaron and Niko by a class action lawyer, David Klein of Klein Lyons of Vancouver. According to Klein "the Defendants failed to communicate the dangerous nature of the Vaccines to the public, and must be held accountable for their negligence. It may be too late for Aaron and Niko but thimerosal has been taken out of all routine vaccines for infants in Canada."